Btul
PASSIVE REBELLION
205
assumed, passive resistance collapsed outwardly under the compulsion of martial law, it had defeated the Egyptian Government, and the spirit which inspired it quickly recovered from its collapse and produced a political deadlock which mere Ministerial changes in Cairo were henceforth powerless to affect. By driving the Egyptian Ministers to resign, it had gone far to discredit the theory maintained until then throughout the Occupation, that whilst Egyptian Ministers were expected to act in all important matters in conformity with British advice, not only would the British control be exercised in consultation and co-operation with them, but they would receive from it such effective support as would be required to uphold their authority in the country. The Rushdi Cabinet had resigned, not as the result of differences with, or in obedience to, the wishes of the British Government, but simply because the forces controlled by the Party of Independence were too much for it. Though British Ministers took a long time still to look the fact in the face, the maintenance of British control was henceforth to be a straight issue between them and the Party of Independence, the immediate result being to reduce the position of Egyptian Ministers to that of heads of departments carrying on merely routine work, and without any influence whatever on the general political situation. General Allenby succeeded after four weeks' laborious effort in inducing Mohamed Said Pasha to form a new Cabinet. As the event was to show, Mohamed Said, even if he had cast off his inveterate habit of hunting with the hounds and running with the hare, could no more than Rushdi prevail against the flowing tide of Nationalism, and during his eight months' tenure of office the centre of Egyptian political activities was steadily transferred from Cairo to Paris, whence Zaghlul Pasha with far more authority than any Prime Minister gave its marching orders to his Cairo Committee, and through it to the politically-minded classes that stood for the Egyptian nation.
1
1n the particular form it thenevident alacrity, the majoritym his work in the above circumstances" is committing an offence under the Proclamation above cited and any personrstatement. The Special